


Life After

by SandraMorningstar



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-25 18:05:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17126180
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SandraMorningstar/pseuds/SandraMorningstar
Summary: When the Jaeger program gets shut down, Newt isn't the only one who wishes things could stay how they were. However, time waits for no man. Change happens. Sometimes in unexpected ways.





	Life After

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Seechi](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=Seechi).



> Merry Christmas, Seechi!
> 
> I hope this comes at least somewhat close to what you wanted for your Christmas Fic. It turned out even more gen fic-y than I had anticipated (oops). As seems to become tradition, your fic needed a lot of research and was about a pairing I was only somewhat familiar with. 
> 
> I'd originally planned to watch the entirety of PacRim 1 again to get a grip of the characters. My workload for uni prevented this, though. So in case you detect anything which blatantly messes with canon or is completely OOC, that is most likely why. I hope I didn't screw up too much in this department and this will be an enjoyable read for you. 
> 
> Love you lots,  
> Sandra

After the breach had been closed, everyone was holding their breath. They had all lived with the Kaiju threat for too long and it took a while for them to truly believe they were safe now, that they’d won. Only when the next predicted attacks came and went without anything happening, the most optimistic of them felt a faint glimmer of hope.

Still, life continued as usual. The Jaeger pilots continued their training and Newt and Hermann worked in their lab every day, with the slight difference that monitoring the breach was slowly becoming the favourite part of their job because day after day it remained stable and – more importantly – closed.

Weeks, then months, passed and things became less frantic and on edge. Everyone was still alert but by this point it was clear they were out of imminent danger. Even Hermann became slightly less grouchy. Newt even witnessed him making a joke. Granted, it wasn’t a very good one and judging by the confused looks in the cafeteria he was the only one who got it, but it was a valiant effort.

All in all, it took a bit over two years until the Shatterdome team was informed that the Jaeger program would be disbanded. No one was particularly surprised about it either. What they were a bit surprised and amused about was that the leaders of the free world had decided to turn the dome into a museum. The breach would still be monitored from there, but it was made clear that no one would pay a top-of-his-field mathematician and a Kaiju researcher to do it any longer. So, he and Hermann had to find new employment.

And then, quicker than they had thought, their final day at the Shatterdome had arrived. A few people had already left but the core crew was still there. They celebrated that night. Well, the others did. Newt didn’t feel much like having a party and had excused himself under the pretence of having procrastinated packing until now.

In the lab, Newt sat down at his desk and blankly stared at the room. Truth be told, he didn’t want to leave. He had even thought about applying for one of the positions to monitor the breach, even though the pay was a fraction of what he earned now. It wouldn’t have mattered. But then he had realised that wouldn’t solve his problem either. Yes, he wanted to keep working here, but more than that he wanted to continue working with the people here. Have them around to talk to and have a drink with. He wanted to continue working with Hermann, despite their differences in opinion and how their bickering sometimes turned into mean-spirited shouting matches.

The door to the lab slid open. “This is not how this is supposed to work”, Hermann said with a laconic  smirk. “You’re the social butterfly and I’m the loner. Thus, logic dictates you should be prying me from my work to convince me to attend a party. Not the other way around.” He walked up to him and when that failed to elicit a reaction, tapped his walking stick against Newt’s leg.

“Huh? Oh, um, yeah sorry but I … I don’t think I’ll make it to the party. Still have a lot to pack…” Newt haphazardly collected some papers from his desk and threw them into one of the cardboard moving boxes. While he was at it, he sneakily wiped his arm across his eyes, drying the tears welling up there.

“So you say” Herman pulled up a chair and sat down with a sigh, fussing for a moment to find a comfortable position for his leg. “But I know you packed everything yesterday. I said you would need a week to get all your stuff into these boxes”, at that he tapped one of them with his cane, “and you proved me wrong.” There was a short pause. “Therefore, I have to ask: What’s really on your mind?”

“Why do you ask?”, Newt spat back, hands balled to fist. “You don’t care. Hell, you’re probably glad you never have to see me again.” He kept his eyes to the ground, not ready to see his words confirmed by Hermann’s expression.

There was no reply apart from a soft shuffling as Hermann adjusted his position once more. The silence stretched long enough to become awkward, even for their standards, and finally Newt looked up.

Herman was staring at him, occasionally opening his mouth as if to say something before closing it again wordlessly. “No”, he finally said, sounding offended. The word hung in the air for an awkwardly long time. “And if you honestly think that you’re even dumber than I tought. But the fact of the matter is, our personal feelings won’t change anything. Time … waits for nobody.” Hermann raised his hands, then let them slink down to his sides.

“I know...” Newt sighed deeply. “But don’t you want it to, sometimes? Hold on to that one perfect moment. Ah, what am I saying! You’re not a sap like me.”

“Well, no. Or at least not in a long time. But I would be lying if I said leaving all of this behind is going to be easy for me.” He looked around the room fondly. “This is my life’s work in a way. Sure, there are other mathematical problems I have now time for but I feel like nothing I do will ever be as relevant and important as my work here. I mean we stopped an invasion. With science! How do you beat that.”

“Well, with science and some big ass robots”, Newt amended.

“Oh you know what I mean!”

“Yeah, I do.”

They sat in companionable silence for a while. It was kinda nice, Newt had to admit. They had spent a lot of time together in the past years, but that was pretty much all down to the fact that they shared a lab. But in their off time? He could count the times that had happened on one hand and they had all been preceded by a major setback. Losing a Jaeger or, in the early days of the program, one of Hermann’s calculations being wrong.

“Do you know what’s next for you?”, he asked.

“I have a few offers, but I haven’t decided yet”, Hermann said, but for some reason he looked less than enthusiastic about it. “But let’s not talk about tomorrow, shall we? I managed to snatch a bottle of Chianti when I left the party to find you.” He pulled out the bottle, smiling crookedly. “So, help me get rid of the evidence?”

That coaxed a smile onto Newt’s face. “Gladly”, he said. “Just let me get some glasses from the break room.”

“As always, I’m one step ahead of you.” Hermann got up and walked over to one of his moving boxes and produced a set of wine glasses.

“Show-off!”, Newt muttered and shook his head but his words had no bite. “Next you’re going to tell me this has a flowery aftertaste.”

“It’s a Chianti, so while not completely out of the question, I suppose, it would be quite the surprise.” Hermann still had that cocky grin on his face. The one he always wore when he knew exactly he was right.

“Oh. My. God!” Newt broke into a laugh and sank deeper into his chair.

“What?” Hermann seemed confused.

“You actually know this kind of thing, don’t you?”

“Only a bit. Enough to bluff my way through a conversation at a dinner party.”

“Well, now you have to show me. Do the thing.”

Hermann merely raised a questioning eyebrow, lips quirked upwards in amusement.

“You know, the wine tasting thing. Where you put only a bit of wine in the glass and you swirl it around and then tell me what it tastes like. And then I take a sip, nod knowingly, and agree with you because I know absolute zero about wine.”

“If I had known that was all it takes to make you agree with me, I would have done this a lot sooner”, Hermann said and filled both their glasses with a few fingers of Chianti.

Newt rolled his eyes but didn’t comment. Instead he took the wine glass Hermann offered him and watched him as he studied the Chianti with the same intensity as a complicated mathematical formula. A pang of sadness accompanied it. He would miss this. Watching Hermann work had always been a motivation for him. Sure, he would never be as organized as him but he liked to think they shared their dedication to their work.

“Do you really not know anything about wine?”, Hermann asked and interrupted his daydreaming.

“Nope”, Newt said. “I was raised on cheap hooch that comes in a tetra pak. Well, not raised but you know…” He laughed awkwardly, wondering why he was so tongue-tied all of a sudden.

“Prepare to be amazed then”, Herman announced and took a sip. “Mhm, tastes fruity. Cherry, I’d hazard. It has a very light body and has just the right amount of dryness. All in all, a very good wine.” Hermann cleared his throat and looked bashful. “That’s all I have.”

Newt took a sip. “Yup, tastes like wine”, he conceded, which made Hermann chuckle. There was another lull in their conversation. They both filled their glasses in earnest now, then sat together and emptied them in silence.

They were about halfway through their second glass before they spoke again.

“I, um, I didn’t get around to asking”, Hermann said unusually tongue-tied, “but do you know where you will go next?”

Newt swallowed. So far, he’d managed to avoid this question. “No”, he admitted, hanging his head. “I mean I have some interview offers and public appearances, but nothing long term. The Kaiju are gone, so there’s not really a high demand for a Kaiju expert anymore.” In a way, it was a relief to finally tell someone.  

“You could always find something else. I might not agree with your methods, but you’re gifted and young and if anyone can make the world his oyster, it’s you.”

Newt stared at Hermann, speechless. Then he looked at his wine, before slowly returning his gaze to his colleague.

“What?”, Hermann asked.

“Um, you– It’s just that– I think that’s the nicest thing anybody’s ever said to me. Do you really believe that?”

“Yes, I do”, Hermann said earnestly. “I mean you drifted with a Kaiju. Which was still a completely mental and ludicrously dangerous thing to do, by the way. But it was also such an out-of-the box idea and by all rights shouldn’t even have worked. You made it work, though. Modified our tech communicate with an alien life form. That is not nothing. If you ask me, every university and think tank should outbid each other to get you.”

“Thanks”, Newt said, touched by so much praise, especially because it came from Hermann. “I’ll tell them to get right on that tomorrow.”

“Or”, Hermann fidgeted with his cane, “you could come with me.”

Now it was Newt’s term to say: “What?”

“I got offers from CalTech and MIT and I’m friends with some of the department heads there–”

“I know where you’re going with this. I can’t accept this.” Newt smiled sadly. “I would never feel like I actually earned that position. I’m sure I’ll find work somewhere. Don’t worry.” Taking a big gulp, he emptied his glass and immediately reached for the bottle to fill it again. Hermann suddenly grabbed his wrist and stopped him.

“Why are you making this so difficult?”, he snapped. “Do you think I would offer this to you, if I didn’t think you had what it takes? This isn’t me leveraging my good name to get you a cushy job. I’m merely making introductions, using my connections. What is so wrong about that?” He looked angry and hurt, waiting for Newt to reply and defend himself.

“Nothing and I really appreciate that you want to help me. But like I said, I would never feel like I deserved this. There are so many promising scientists in the world and the only thing that makes me special is the fact that I know you.”

Hermann groaned in frustration and got up. “You and your damn feelings!”, he said and pointed accusingly at him. “What about my feelings? What if I _want_ to have you around and keep working with you? Did that ever occur to you? No, of course it didn’t!” Hermann was shaking and breathing heavily. His eyes looked dangerously close to tears, but that might have been a trick of the light.

“You want to keep working with me?”, Newt repeated, completely steamrolled by this announcement alone.

“Yes for fuck’s sake”, Hermann answered, voice still sharp. “I want to work with you. Want to–” The sentence hung in the air, unfinished.

“Want to what?”, Newt asked.

There was a long pause, before Hermann replied. “Get to know you. I meant to say I want to get to know you better. Off work. Not in imminent danger to be wiped out together with the rest of humanity. But if you don’t want to, guess that’s no surprise. I’m not the easiest person to be a round. Notoriously hard to work with, it says in my personnel file. It’s just, I really like you. I like you a lot. Even when you make a mess and drive me nuts with your stupid and stupidly dangerous ideas.” Hermann was rambling, growing more and more nervous by the second.

Newt cut him off by pulling him into a tight hug and, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, kissed him right on the mouth.

“I accept”, he said, smiling and crying simultaneously. “Why didn’t you say anything earlier, you grouch! Here I thought all this time you barely tolerated me.”

“Never been good at expressing what I felt”, Hermann said, blushing. “But, um, that just now was really nice.”

Newt smiled back at him. “We’ll work on that”, he promised. Then he kissed him again.


End file.
